1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing system including a computer-readable program storage medium and an information processing apparatus capable of attaching the computer-readable program storage medium thereto, and particularly relates to the copying of a program and the execution of a program.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, there is a method of allowing only a specific user to copy a predetermined program or execute a predetermined program. For example, a copy protection method using a medium having stored therein software including an ID number storage area and also using a computer system including an ID number storage device is disclosed (e.g., Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 63-213027). In this method, the software stored in the medium is copied into a secondary storage device provided in the computer system. At this time, the copy is made by embedding the ID number stored in the ID number storage device into the ID number storage area. As a result, even when a copy is attempted to be made into another computer system using the copy medium, the ID number of the ID number storage area does not match the ID number of the ID number storage device of said another computer system, and thus the copy cannot be made to said another computer system.
Further, a method using identification information unique to a device is also disclosed (e.g., Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-53183). For example, a storage medium including a read-only area and a writable area is attached to a game apparatus. Then, identification information unique to the game apparatus is written into the writable area. This method compares the identification information written in the storage medium to the identification information stored in the game apparatus main body and changes the process contents of the game program depending on whether or not the identification information written in the storage medium matches the identification information stored in the game apparatus main body.
Further, a method of providing in a storage medium a non-volatile memory having a virgin code written therein when the storage medium has not yet been used and of, when an information processing apparatus to which the storage medium is attached detects the virgin code, writing an ID code of the information processing apparatus into the storage medium is also disclosed (e.g., Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-154839). The information processing apparatus does not read a program from the storage medium which does not have stored therein the ID code of the information processing apparatus. Consequently, it is possible to execute the program in only the information processing apparatus of which the ID code has been registered into the storage medium.
However, conventionally, the above-described methods and information processing apparatuses have the following problems. In the method disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 63-213027, from a medium from which a copy has once been made to a device, another copy cannot be made to any other device except for the device to which the copy has been made. Further, a program cannot be started up directly from the medium, either. Additionally, in the information processing apparatuses disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-53183 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-154839, a specific user (device) is associated with a storage medium, using an ID number. However, the storage medium once associated with a certain device cannot be used with any other device except for the certain device. That is, in each one of the above-described methods, once a storage medium is associated with an information processing apparatus by making a copy, writing an ID, and the like, the storage medium cannot be used in any other device except for the information processing apparatus with which the storage medium is associated.